Following on from a piece about how to handle the way we writers feel in social gatherings – seriously, normal people say parties, I am such a writer – there is this. Jerry Seinfeld has advice for what to do when talking to someone and it’s getting tricky.

It’s from his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and an edition with comedian Amy Schumer. Here’s the whole episode, on account of a) I can’t just link to the tiny segment and 2) I enjoyed the whole episode while trying to get you a link.

But the technique is just this: ask questions – and specifically ask people questions that require numbers in the answer. Now watch on for why.